Prince Snivellus the Second
by Silver Sailor Ganymede
Summary: James has a new nickname for his brother and Harry doesn't like it.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Prince Snivellus the Second  
By Silver Sailor Ganymede

It wasn't until Albus Severus' fifth year and James' sixth that Harry found out what had been happening. He suspected that he and Ginny would never have known about it at all had Lily not happened to witness her brothers fighting one day. The two had been standing there, glaring daggers at each other, and James had shouted, "Oh, so you think you're strong enough to duel me now, do you, Prince Snivellus the Second?"

It turned out that his younger son was more than capable of duelling his eldest, as James had spent the next hour being chased around the castle by a particularly vicious bat-bogey hex until some Ravenclaw seventh years had kindly decided to end the spell for him, but that wasn't what concerned Harry. No, what concerned him was that his two sons were arguing to the point of duelling in public – and what concerned him even more was James' nickname for his brother.

That was why he had pulled both boys out of classes on Thursday afternoon and had them sitting across the table from him in the Three Broomsticks. Both boys wore glasses like their father, but that was where the similarities ended. James' hair was short and perpetually messy like his father's and grandfather's had been, whereas Albus Severus' was much longer and tied back in a lose ponytail. James' eyes were dark brown like Ginny's, whereas Albus Severus' were bright green like Harry's. James had inherited Harry's light frame, whereas Albus Severus was gangly like Ron had been at that age – this meant that Albus Severus was a full five inches taller than James already, much to his brother's annoyance. And the most important difference of all was the one that could be seen only because they were wearing their school robes – James was a Gryffindor (like his parents and sister and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and just about everyone else), but Albus Severus had ended up in Slytherin.

While this would have explained away a friendly rivalry between the two, it certainly did not explain the open hostility between the two brothers. Indeed, they acted in a way that reminded Harry rather two much of Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore, and that wasn't something that pleased him at all.

"Why did you bring us here, father?" Albus Severus said curtly.

Harry sighed; his younger son starting to sound more and more like a stereotypical Slytherin every time he saw him.

"Well James, Albus…" he began, but Albus Severus interrupted him.

"It's Asp, not Albus," he snapped. "Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you? _Asp_."

"Bloody snake," James muttered.

Harry opened his mouth to chastise his older son, but his younger son got there before him.

"So what?" Asp snapped. "I am a snake. I've been a snake for years. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Because you're a _Potter_," James snapped back. "Dad's a Potter and mum's a Weasley. We're all Gryffindors. We're supposed to be Gryffindors. We're lions, not snakes!"

"Says who?" Asp replied. "Sirius Black's family were all Slytherins and he ended up in Gryffindor! The same thing's happened with me, just the other way round."

"Exactly," James shot back. "It's the other way round! Gryffindor is good, Slytherin is bad!"

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

"Exactly! Your opinions are worth dragon dung."

"Will you two shut up!" Harry snapped, already getting extremely embarrassed by his sons' behaviour. "You're acting like a pair of children. You realise that this is exactly why I had to see you both. Why on earth are you arguing so much? It's not as though it matters what house you're in, boys; none of them is any better or any worse than any other."

"It is bad if being in Slytherin's led to _Asp _here studying dark magic," James hissed, sounding ironically like a snake.

The mug of butterbeer in Harry's hand slipped from his grip and smashed all over the floor.

"Albus Severus Potter, is this true?" Harry asked, shocked. His son studying dark magic? His son?

Asp shrugged. "So what if it is? Dark magic's only dark because of the intention behind it."

"So you're saying that the Unforgivables aren't dark magic," James countered. Asp laughed.

"Well, the killing curse can be used to give someone in extreme, incurable pain a peaceful, swift death," Asp said. "Imperius can be used to make people do good things as well as bad – for example you could take over the mind of a murderer and prevent him from killing the person he was intending to kill. And as for the Cruciatus – well, Aurors used it during the first war against Voldemort, didn't they? And nobody would call _them _dark wizards.

"So in answer to your question, yes I have been practicing the Dark Arts, but one couldn't exactly call them that because my intentions aren't dark. I'd only ever use such curses if I needed to protect those close to me."

Harry looked at his son, shocked. He had heard similar things said before (of course he had, being in the profession he was in) but never from the mouth of a fifteen-year-old boy.

"Typical bloody Slytherin attitude, that is," James muttered. "Just like your namesake, you are."

"Is that where you got the nickname 'Snivellus' from?" Harry asked him quietly. "Because you have to know that I really don't approve of that. At all."

"Why not?"

"Because that's what your grandfather used to call Severus Snape," Harry replied. "And it isn't particularly pleasant."

"So what? He's just a bloody cowardly snake!" James snapped.

"Will you stop talking about me as though I'm not here," Asp snarled as he stood up. "I've had it up to here with you, James. You're just not listening to a thing I say. That's the problem – you never do! You may be an idiot but you're still my brother, damn it!"

With that he stormed out of the pub, attracting more than a few stares along the way.

"James, what exactly caused the fight you two had earlier this week?" Harry asked.

"Malfoy," James muttered. "I don't like him! He's too close to Albus and it's creeping me out. He's a Slytherin and a Malfoy and an all-round git, and its just not healthy. So I told Albus that and he lost his temper and threw a hex at me."

Harry sighed. "Your brother has the right to choose his own friends, you know."

"Yeah, but not if they're Slytherins."

"Albus is a Slytherin. Does that make him a bad person?"

"I'm sorry, dad, but I'm starting to think that it does," James replied. "He doesn't care about anything other than his fellow Slytherins; he's a snake through and through now and it makes me sick."

"You know, James, when Albus said that he'd use those spells to protect the people closest to him, you realise that he includes you in that?" Harry said quietly.

"No, he doesn't," James snapped. "I just told you he doesn't and he _doesn't_! Slytherins don't have loyalties. In fact the only person I can see him protecting is Scorpius bloody Malfoy."

Harry sighed, "I think you're wrong, James, and you'll see that soon. But just promise me one thing, ok?"

"What?"

"Stop calling your brother 'Snivellus'," he sighed. "Severus Snape was no coward, no matter what your grandfather may have thought about him. Would I have named my son after a coward?"

"No, dad, you wouldn't have."

"Then just bare this in mind – Severus Snape was quite possibly the bravest person I ever met and he was a Slytherin just like your brother."

Two weeks later Harry and Ginny got a letter from Hogwarts saying that James had been put in detention for a month for hexing another student. When Harry asked James why he had done that, James had sent an owl back saying that no one was allowed to insult Severus Snape – and no one at all was allowed to insult his little brother. That was his job after all.


End file.
